OSCE Shuts Down Minsk Group, Leaving Artsakh’s Armenians Without Protection

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has formally closed its Minsk process and dissolved the Minsk Group, ending more than three decades of international mediation on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The decision, adopted on September 1, 2025, came after a joint request by Armenia and Azerbaijan and was endorsed by all 57 participating states.

The announcement was made by OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, and OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioğlu. Both hailed the move as “historic” and claimed it opens the way for peace and normalization in the South Caucasus.

But behind the celebratory language, the reality is darker. The closure of the Minsk Group does not represent justice for the Armenian people of Artsakh. It instead formalizes Azerbaijan’s military victory and the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023.

The Minsk Group was established in 1992 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict between Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan. Co-chaired by Russia, the United States, and France, it provided a forum where Artsakh’s status was recognized as disputed and unresolved. Although it failed to secure a lasting settlement, it kept alive the international acknowledgment that Nagorno-Karabakh was not simply “Azerbaijan’s territory.”

Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries meet with the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the sidelines of the 17th OSCE Ministerial Council in Athens, 1 December 2009

Now, with its dissolution, Azerbaijan has succeeded in erasing even this recognition. Armenia’s agreement to the group’s closure came under intense Azerbaijani pressure. For Baku, removing the Minsk framework was essential to rewriting history and presenting its conquest of Artsakh as final and legitimate.

For Armenians, the closure feels like abandonment. The OSCE has chosen to wash its hands of a people who were expelled from their ancestral land after decades of violence, war, and blockade.

The OSCE’s decision followed the August 8 U.S.-brokered declaration signed at the White House by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, witnessed U.S. President Donald Trump. Alongside that declaration, the two leaders also initialed a bilateral peace agreement.

The agreement commits both sides to mutual recognition of territorial integrity, diplomatic relations, and border delimitation. It also includes promises to open transport routes, including a corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhijevan through Armenian territory.

While presented as a step toward normalization, this deal heavily favors Azerbaijan. It strengthens Aliyev’s regime by locking in the results of his 2020 and 2023 wars and by forcing Armenia into concessions under the guise of “peace.”

In their statements, OSCE leaders praised “historic agreements” and “diplomatic progress.” But they deliberately avoided acknowledging the core truth: Artsakh’s 120,000 Armenians were driven from their homes in September 2023 when Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military assault.

That assault came after a nine-month blockade of the Lachin Corridor, during which Artsakh’s population suffered hunger, medicine shortages, and isolation. When the final offensive came, the Armenians of Artsakh had no choice but to flee. Their centuries-old homeland was emptied in days.

The OSCE’s closure of the Minsk Group, without even mentioning this tragedy, is a betrayal. It turns a blind eye to Azerbaijan’s crimes and leaves no international structure to address the rights of the displaced Artsakh Armenians.

Azerbaijan has worked for years to eliminate Nagorno-Karabakh not just physically but politically. By declaring the Minsk Group “obsolete” and demanding its closure, Baku has tried to erase the very idea that Karabakh was ever in dispute. Now, with the OSCE’s compliance, that erasure has become institutionalized.

The OSCE says the dissolution will be complete by December 1, 2025, with only administrative tasks like asset transfers continuing until then. After that, there will be no Minsk Group, no official forum, and no diplomatic mechanism tied to Nagorno-Karabakh.